An Oregon City farm is making a move beyond community-supported agriculture, testing a business model that could prove an economic winner for organic growers targeting local food fans.

Meet the full-diet farm, which allows people to pay a set annual fee to order all the food they eat each week for a year.

C’est Naturelle Farms is owned by Vernie and William DeMille. The farm last year operated under a community-supported agriculture model, which charges members a set fee for a share of the harvest.

However, the food was available only during harvest season and didn’t account for a person’s entire dietary needs. The DeMilles also ended up feeding a huge quantity of their crops to pigs when clients forgot to order or drifted away.

“The biggest expense for a farmer is loss. We’re trying to make a marriage between feeding a lot of people and not sacrificing the product or the land,” said Vernie DeMille, who said the farm can feed a full diet to 100 to 150 people.

The disappointment sent her hunting for a more sustainable business model. She stumbled on the farming memoir “The Dirty Life,” and contacted author Kristin Kimball, who assured her the full-diet plan really works.

Now, C’est Naturelle is producing a full diet of food for members who sign on for a full year of groceries, which are delivered weekly.

Unlike a CSA, the farm supplies its customers with a full diet of foods from July to July, an arrangement that when paired with delivery makes eating healthful, consistent and easy for members and also provides the DeMilles a dedicated client base for which they can better plan their crops. Customers select their items from an order form, choosing vegetables, poultry and various cuts of half and whole cows, sheep and pigs.

“Now that I know exactly how much I have to produce, I can invest my time better and plan,” said DeMille, adding that the full-diet practice has boosted the farm’s efficiency.

C’est Naturelle has the backing of a local investor, who first hired the DeMilles as consultants in 2009 before inviting the Colorado pair and their four children to Oregon to operate C’est Naturelle on his 118-acre property. The investor has requested anonymity in regards to the farm.

For the DeMilles, the partnership offered an opportunity to work with an experienced businessman who shared their vision for growing diverse, organic crops.

How full diet works

Farm members pay $2,500 for the first adult membership. Each successive adult member in a family costs $400 less than the first. Anyone older than 13 is considered an adult. Those younger than 13 pay $100 a year and children younger than 3 are free.

C’est Naturelle currently has about 80 members on the full-diet plan. Another 40 to 50 customers order single items like milk and eggs, for which they pay by the item.

DeMille said the pricing is competitive with stores like Safeway and beats prices at the nearby New Seasons.

“Of course we don’t have everything year round,” she said.

The full-diet plan does, however, offer fresh local fare to members and provides C’est Naturelle with an economic model that works. DeMille said knowing what customers want ahead of time helps the farm avoid losses. And working on a year-round model allows C’est Naturelle to avoid the seasonal client loss that is typical for CSAs, usually about 40 percent.

“That’s not a sustainable business model,” said DeMille. “CSAs are always looking for new and better ways to market but my theory is that you just need to focus on a model that works better for your customer.”

She notes the farm’s delivery service helped lock in about 70 percent of the farm’s customers, all of whom want good food for their families but are either too busy to attend farmers markets or get overwhelmed by the expense of feeding a family on high-end groceries.

DeMille said the full-menu model has also helped C’est Naturelle’s economic outlook. The farm is now on track to make $400,000 in 2012, enough to cover expenses, pay its four employees a living wage and cover operational costs into next year. She said their investor seeded the operation with approximately $500,000 and doesn’t plan for a return on investment until the farm is financially stable.

DeMille said the farm’s ultimate goal is to make investments in young farmers and to assist farmers in the third world. For the short term, C’est Naturelle will be adding grains to its members’ menu through partnerships with other farmers and will also offer baked goods like bread, cereals and rolls once the Oregon Department of Agriculture approves its new certified kitchen.

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